Fruit Pudding

This is heritage baking at its most old-school. A steamed pudding from the Pennsylvania Dutch tradition, made with suet, molasses, raisins, and a quartet of warm spices: cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves. It’s dense, dark, deeply spiced, and meant to be drowned in brown sugar pudding sauce.

Suet (the hard fat from around beef kidneys) is what gives traditional steamed puddings their rich, moist texture. It melts slowly during the long steam, basting the pudding from the inside out. The result is denser than cake but lighter than you’d expect from looking at it. Molasses darkens everything to a deep mahogany and adds its own bittersweet complexity.

Dissolve the baking soda in boiling water and add it last. It reacts with the acidic molasses to create lift in a batter that has no eggs, no butter, and no baking powder. The flour amount is left to feel, so add enough to create a thick, pourable batter that isn’t runny but isn’t stiff either.

Steam in a tightly covered, well-greased mold for three full hours. The long, gentle heat is what transforms the raw batter into a tender, spiced pudding.

Chef Tips

• Ask your butcher for suet. If unavailable, cold grated butter is a reasonable substitute, though the texture will be slightly different
• The mold must be sealed tightly. Any steam escaping means a dry pudding
• Check the water level in your steaming pot periodically and top up with boiling water as needed
• This pudding improves if made a day ahead. Reheat by steaming for another 30 minutes

Variations

• Add chopped dried figs or dates alongside the raisins for a richer fruit flavor
• Replace molasses with golden syrup for a lighter, sweeter pudding
• Serve with hard sauce (butter, powdered sugar, and brandy) instead of brown sugar sauce